Just because school is out doesn't mean learning has to end.
Brandeis University and Waltham Boys & Girls Club joined forces to offer summer enrichment programs for children of the Prospect Hill Terrace apartments.
Brandeis student Lauren Ehrlich supervises the group of about nine students from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. during the week.
The program started last Monday and runs into August.
A Sharon native, Ehrlich is a women's and gender studies major at Brandeis.
During the school year she helped organize and staff after-school programs and tutor children at the Prospect Hill Community Learning Center.
Ehrlich said she first started working at Prospect Hill in 2007, when she was in Brandeis Professor Ellen Schattschneider's Anthropology of Gender course. She helped clean up the housing complex and plant gardens.
"We have this nice (community center) here that is only open when people from Brandeis keep it open. It's a shame to keep it closed over the summer," she said. "I wanted to have some kind of enrichment over the summer to keep their brains stimulated."
Teamed with her brother Harry, they taught students about Australia and India last Thursday. Inside the community center, the group baked cookies, acted in plays and made clay animals. The center is set up in a former apartment at Prospect Hill Terrace.
"I feel like the kids really need role models in college and it really shows them it's possible to go on to further education," she said. "They obviously could go to different summer camps, but it's nice to keep them closer to home."
Within the last two years, Brandeis students and faculty have become heavily involved with a variety of outreach efforts at the complex.
For the summer program, Ehrlich is supported by a new Louis Brandeis social justice fellowship and is running the program through a Boys & Girls Club internship.
Brandeis Senior Associate Dean Elaine Wong oversees the fellowship program.
"We are especially happy that Lauren will be able to continue to assist children and families she met (last year) through her work at the Prospect Hill Community Learning Center," Wong said in an e-mail "(We're also happy) for this opportunity to demonstrate the university's commitment to the Waltham community."
Wong said that this summer 10 Brandeis students are participating in social justice internships around the world, including the program at Prospect Hill. The group is working with a wide range of organizations including Farmworker Justice, the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
"(It's) thanks to the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice," Wong said. "This fund, established through the generosity of an anonymous Brandeis donor, provides each student with a $3,500 stipend to alleviate costs associated with unpaid internships in social-service agencies addressing issues of social justice."
Mario Pena of the Boys & Girls Club is Ehrlich's internship supervisor.
"The Boys & Girls Club oversees the program and we oversee (that Ehrlich) meets all the requirements," Pena said. "She has activities for them at Prospect Hill, then two days a week. they come here to the Boys & Girls Club and they go swimming, they play in the game rooms ... we're pretty happy to see them at the club."
Manuela Solorzano, president of the Prospect Hill Tenants Association, said she is glad to see the children having some organized play activities.
"It's a good thing," she said. "They have a lot of variety of stuff they are doing. They won't just be sitting there watching TV, they will be off learning."
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
